Joey Barton thread. One of the boffins at Opta has run a comparative analysis. http://www.eplindex.com/12241/joey-barton-criticised-opta-stats-analysis.html Quick conclusion is that he's not as good as he thinks but not as bad as some believe.
Interesting indeed Telford! These stats confirm my view of his performance on the pitch this season! He should n't be taking the free kicks and corners, but otherwise he has done ok, apart from Liverpool home.
Not much point in him winning a high percentage of tackles and 50/50 balls, if he simply gives it straight back to the opposition.
I'd have a debate but I'm bored of Barton threads and nobody can agree. We can all choose which stats to look at and how to interpret
Can't help myself!!! Here's one quick one. If you knock off his misplaced passes so you are left with 68% of 1420 he has still made over 200 more than his closest team mate with the exception of Faurlin who is injured. He has to get in position to take possession of the ball, he has to tackle to win the ball etc etc and now I really am bored!
Absolute tosh. I'm not even going to look at those Stats because Stats are a load of sh*t. You don't need Stats to know if a player is performing or not. And if you do, dare I say it, you know fu*k all about football. Get another hobby like Croquet or Billiards, sumfink more straightforward.
No. Stats are a good indication of a players performance, stripped of whatever personal prejudice might be brought into the equation. I hate Joey Barton because he tweets. I hate Joey Barton because he has a past. I hate Joey Barton because he earns a lot of money. I hate Joey Barton because he doesn't care. Blah, blah, blah. Stats are good and I'll continue to post them if I find them interesting. If they're tosh in your view then ignore them.
There's no such thing as too much information. The more stats, the more perspective. Even the "Messi isn't the best even because he hasn't done much with Argentina" comment is based on the FACT that they haven't won the world cup. Stats make the world go round. Conjecture is the fun in between that causes lively debate.* *86% of lively debates are in reality arguements.
No worries my man - don't mind my colorful language, just havin' a laugh. Personally I'd be from the old school of things and just make judgments on what I see. Different strokes for different folks I suppose.
Fair enough and none taken. I don't think stats are the be all and end all by any means and should always be given a context such as Matt's Messi analogy above.
We can only judge a players's performance by what we see on the pitch! It is possible just about always to produce stats that will back up an a point you are trying to make, so I will never take them as being the final judgement. Nevertheless, I find them interesting particularly when the person or organisation producing them have no particular axe they are trying to grind. Sometimes they give new insights on a player - for example they were stats at the beginning of the season showing Ale at the top of tackling success ratios, which I don't think that many of us had really appreciated back then!
The dangers of taking stats at face value. The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy: "Every single person in the galaxy has 2.4 legs and owns a hyena."
Interesting angle you're coming from there guys. That's why I like this forum so much! (Thanks for posting them up by the way Tel) Maybe its arrogance/ignorance/pigheadedness on my part for not looking at the Statistics. That may well be the case. Perhaps they'll tell me something I don't want to hear. In that case, more fool me. Statistics are an enigma in that they can't possibly lie because, well, they're Statistics. But on the flip side of that coin, we all know they CAN lie and totally mislead someone! Like, for example, in theory you could run a Company from one small office with a Phone and a Computer and work off Stats and other data entirely. But we all know the truth is that you've got to get down "on the shop floor" to find out what you really need to do. I'm sure a lot of the modern managers use Stats in a big way. But there are plenty of good Football Men that don't need them and rely only on their own instinct. Barton's Stats don't take into account his effect on the rest of the team in terms of morale and style of play. There's only so far that kind of stuff will get you and in my view, not very far at all!
